


Fairest Of Them All

by SweetToots



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Dr Leorio, Kurapika looking good in drag, Kurta eyes hunt, Leorio is a tall drink of water, M/M, Pining, Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25096237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetToots/pseuds/SweetToots
Summary: Leorio gets spotted by a talent scout for a modelling agency. Kurapika is not impressed. There's work to be done.
Relationships: Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Comments: 16
Kudos: 85





	Fairest Of Them All

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy a small offering of thirst for Doctor Leorio Paladinight and the prettiest (only) little Kurta
> 
> With thanks to all the talented creators doing their thing for HxH and reawakening my interest.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and people flocked the streets in colorful outfits, relaxed and contented expressions upon every face as they basked in the perfect weather. Leorio was coming to love the city of Kakin- wherever you were, there was a park never too far away, with huge lawns and large old trees for shade, long paths to wander down and perhaps find a splashing fountain at the end of. 

The retail center of the city, around which he and Kurapika now walked, was not bad either. He knew they had a mission - as always, with Kurapika - but he couldn't keep his gaze from straying towards the men's fashion stores, especially the ones with sleek new suits in the windows. Everyone had their interests, and since Leorio had come to associate success with dressing sharply, and since he was obsessed with success, his interest in a well-cut suit bordered on obsessive. Whenever there was a suit on display, he couldn't help but analyze it for its tailoring. Sometimes, he could be so distracted by a good suit that he'd find it hard to concentrate on what its wearer was saying. He had that problem when Kurapika strutted around in his expensively tailored bodyguard suits - heck, even Melody looked stunning in her smaller version. 

Leorio's current outfit was a pair of pale shorts and a yellow, short-sleeved shirt that was covered in stylized flowers. 

When Leorio had arrived last night with a suitcase packed with suits and nothing else, Kurapika had anticipated it and had already purchased the outfit Leorio now wore. The items fit well, and looked quite good on his olive-brown skin, and were probably a good choice given the heat and the fact that they were supposed to be tracking this lead unnoticed. All that Leorio knew was that her name was Lorettiz and she had been communicating in code to a seller about possibly putting her crimson eyes on the market. 

Kurapika was wearing a light pink linen shirt tucked loosely into white, cut-off pants and white leather loafers, which had made Leorio scoff that he'd found a much classier outfit for himself than for Leorio. "If you'd brought proper clothes for this type of work, you could have chosen to wear something equally nice," Kurapika had snapped at him. 

Stretching out the bright shirt and thrusting it under Kurapika's nose, Leorio had said, "Oh, so this is a punishment, then?" 

Kurapika had snatched it away, saying, almost flustered, "I couldn't wear that sort of color, but - I thought it would suit you." That had brought Leorio up short. It was rare for Kurapika to infer any kind of compliment, though this could barely be counted as one. It was just that Kurapika had noticed something about him - albeit just his skin tone. It was pathetic, really, that even the most basic attention from Kurapika could make him speechless. As usual, he was reading too much into the smallest interaction, when what Leorio should be remembering was the fact that he had flown all the way out here in the first place just to assist in another stage of Kurapika's exhaustive quest for revenge, when the blond man had never returned the favor in the least, and did not seem to have any plans to. 

Leorio looked down at where his shirt sleeve ended, meeting the bare skin of his arm which was already tanning in the sunshine. Although garish on its own, the yellow really did accentuate the natural glow of his skin. A very observant choice for Kurapika to make, and Leorio struggled not to take it as a sign of anything more than that. He nearly walked into Kurapika when the blond stopped abruptly. 

Kurapika clutched his arm, not looking at him. 

"She's going into that toy store," he said. Their mark was indeed entering a small store down the street with a fun pastel sign above. Three of her bodyguards entered the store with her, while two remained posted on either side of the door with their hands clasped in front of them. It would take a very brave or oblivious person to dare enter the store now. 

"A toy store," Leorio said. 

"Yes, she's got three nieces and she's pretty close to them." 

Leorio grunted in understanding. He nudged Kurapika. "We can't just stand here in the middle of the street. They're gonna notice us." 

Kurapika startled a little beside him, apparently realizing for the first time how much attention they might draw, standing and gawking at the toy store. When he got focused on his objective, he wasn't the best at looking relaxed. They both scanned the lively pedestrian street for a way to look inconspicuous. 

Leorio jostled him again. "Let's get a bubble tea," he said, nodding at a kiosk nearby, where a small line had formed. Kurapika nodded, and together they went to join the end of the queue. After standing for a minute, Leorio realized that Kurapika was physically incapable of tearing his eyes away from the mark, and though he had shades on, it must still be obvious. Leorio shifted to face him, until he mostly shielded the shorter man from direct view, catching Kurapika when he unconsciously tried to step out of Leorio's shadow. 

"Be cool," Leorio reminded him. Kurapika's face flashed up to him. He swallowed and rolled his shoulders then nodded shortly. Leorio kept his hand on Kurapika's upper arm, knowing how easily he would forget to be subtle again. 

When their turn at the counter came, Leorio ordered lychee and got a strawberry bubble tea for Kurapika when he met a blank stare in return to his question of what he would like. Leorio payed and chatted amiably to the server, trying to make up for Kurapika's strangely cold display. 

"Take it," he prompted, forcibly placing the drink into Kurapika's hands. Kurapika was good enough to accept it and bring the straw mechanically to his lips. "Alright, good," Leorio praised him sardonically as he steered them out of the line. "Let's find some shade where we can enjoy these nice refreshing drinks, huh?" 

He found them a spot under one of the trees that were planted in a double row down the wide street. A group of teens was relaxing on a bench built around the trunk, shoving each other playfully and making enough conversation in their native tongue that he and Kurapika would hardly stand out. Kurapika grimaced and brought his drink up to inspect. "I don't like this. What is it?" 

Leorio rolled his whole head, his eyes being hidden behind shades. "It's strawberry. You know? A standard dessert flavor? Don't worry, we can swap." He didn't mind strawberry. Kurapika seemed to prefer the lychee, sucking on the wide straw, contented as he ever got, as far as Leorio could tell. Now that they were in the shade, a little farther away from the toy store, Leorio didn't feel so paranoid that the guards were watching Kurapika back. To prevent their attention being too obvious, he left the spying to Kurapika, taking the position of cover once more. 

"What's she doing? She must have been in there for twenty minutes already," Leorio grumbled eventually, already nearly done with his drink. He dared to glance over his shoulder at the shop front, where the guards remained unmoving, sweat glistening on the bald one's head. The interior was too comparatively dark to see what was going on. 

It was another few minutes before Kurapika answered, sighing a little. "She is very picky, apparently. Her colleagues within the organization complain of that aspect of her personality, though some attribute her success to it." 

"So she's deciding between My Little Princess and Tubby the Teddybear," Leorio said. 

"Hm. It's probably some sort of remote control equipment. Oraya is really into that sort of thing and her twelfth birthday is coming up." 

Leorio stared at the blond for a second, not quite understanding. He realized Kurapika must be talking about one of the woman's nieces. "Sheesh. You really learn everything about your marks, don't you?" 

That earns Leorio a brief glance that he knows is a glare under those shades. "Of course I do." 

Leorio hoovered up the last of his chewy bubbles while he thought about how well it will go down if he were to entreat Kurapika not to involve this woman's little nieces if he ever needs any leverage over her. He fears that it would make Kurapika flip out and tell him to stay out of Kurapika's business if he doesn't want to shut up and help. It's not like he's actually holding them hostage yet, Leorio tells himself. Those three little girls will probably go on living their spoiled lives without ever knowing that a black list Hunter found out everything about them, from what grades they got in their last school reports to what posters they have on their walls. It is best not to ask too many questions or delve too deeply into Kurapika's methods. 

Leorio pushed his shades up and put his hand on his hip. Even under this tree the temperature was rising as it passed noon, and Leorio deemed it time to release a few buttons, plucking at his shirt to create a breeze. It's normal to be bored. This is how it's supposed to be on a stake out, according to the TV dramas featuring cops falling asleep in their cars while their partners drink pints of coffee to stay awake. It's certainly not how he thought his first holiday away from the hospital would look. He'd been imagining sunshine, sure, but there had been less tension and more lying around on white sandy beaches, surrounded by women in tiny bikinis. Maybe he'd seen Kurapika there beside him too, relaxing on a towel in a way that Leorio had never seen in real life. They would read books and chat and saunter off to get ice creams to eat under an umbrella - well, alright, this wasn't so very different from Leorio's imaginings, but he would prefer it if Kurapika's mind didn't always have to be on the job. 

They were standing in the dappled shade for almost half an hour when a woman in red short-shorts and a blazer and huge sunglasses suddenly appeared at Leorio's elbow. 

"I'm sorry to interrupt," she gushed as Leorio blinked in surprise and Kurapika turned. The woman reached into her handbag and pulled out a business card and waved it around as she talked. "I work for focz models, which just happens to have its headquarters down the street from here." She smiled widely, showing rows of bleached white teeth. "I'm a talent scout. I don't often stop people on a street like this - I don't often see exactly what we're looking for at focz. I think that you might be an exception, though." To Leorio's astonishment, she was staring intently up at Leorio. He could only gape in response. After a short pause which Leorio fails to fill, she pressed the business card closer to him. "My number and email are on here. I'm Kolira Morope." Leorio took the little card because it looked thick and heavy and the embossed 'FOCZ' logo was bold and important-looking. And because Leorio couldn't deny a pretty woman anything. He also shook her hand when she stuck it out in front of him. "What's your name?" 

"Me? Uh. I'm. I'm Leorio," he said, failing in that moment to think of a single other name he could use as an alias. 

"That's a great name. Well Leorio," said Kolira, rolling his name over her tongue slowly, flirtatiously, "I'd like to invite you to come and have a look around at focz, see if it's the kind of place for you. We can get some shots of you and see how well the camera likes you. See if we get along with an eye to possibly getting you on our books." 

Leorio finally managed to get his jaw shut and he swallowed thickly. "Uh," he said. "I'm not here for long, actually." 

Kolira lifted a shoulder. "I could tell you weren't from around here," she said, which explains why she was speaking in the official Hunter language. She looked Leorio up and down from bare calves to spikey black hair, lingering at the large triangle of chest revealed by his open shirt buttons, an intensity in her eyes that Leorio still wasn't used to receiving from women after only just growing into his gangly limbs. "Don't worry about that. We've got offices all over the world. Just leave it to me and I'll get in touch with a location closer to you." 

Leorio huffed a small laugh, looking at Kurapika with incredulity, meeting no response but a tight little mouth under black shades. "Thanks, this is nice of you, but I've already got a job I'm happy in. And - well, it's my friend here who is the pretty one. Maybe you can't tell behind those shades," he said, deciding to have a little fun at the expense of the uptight blond. 

Kolira looked at Kurapika as if for the first time, scanning him quickly. "Oh, yes, I can see," she crooned, "But we're a male modelling agency at focz. I can link you with some contacts I have at other agencies if you're interested, hon? I think you could totally have a shot in the right hands," she offered sweetly. Leorio couldn't help it. He felt the grin overtake his face as Kurapika's jaw got correspondingly tighter. Kolira fished in her bag for another card and offered it to Kurapika. After staring at her with flared nostrils for a moment, Kurapika snatched it out of her hand without a word, obviously choosing to avoid a conflict. Leorio snorted before turning it into a small cough. Kolina turned back to Leorio, her true goal. "I really hope I hear from you, Leorio. I think we could get a lot of work for you easily. I don't want to get your hopes up too much, but some of our models take home six or seven figures for a photoshoot, so whatever job you're happily doing right now, it's worth knowing that this opportunity is out there for you, don't you think?" 

Leorio felt his eyebrows rise. "Are you serious? That's ridiculous. For some pictures?" 

Kolira smiled smugly, feeling a bite on her bait. "For the right look, people will pay a lot, trust me. I have to dash now, but I want to hear from you, ok? Bye now, Leorio," she said, backing away, fluttering her manicured fingers in a wave, nodding at Kurapika, whose name she had not bothered to learn. 

Leorio tucked the card into his pocket to get his hand free, still a bit stunned to hear what kind of money a model could make for very little work. 

"When you're finished," Kurapika said, not sounding too happy and standing with his arms crossed over his chest, "Our mark is leaving the toy store and we need to be ready to follow." 

Leorio turned. There was Lorettiz, her bodyguards leaving the store behind her laden with fancy bags. She must have spent a small fortune on luxury toys. She strode ahead, talking into her phone, while the black-suited entourage tried to keep pace. 

The mark had clearly finished her shopping, because she went straight back to the cars not too far away, parked illegally (she could afford the tickets), and Kurapika and Leorio watched at a discrete distance as they piled in and drove off. 

Leorio scratched his head. "I guess she's not meeting the seller this morning." 

"No," Kurapika agreed. "Which means that the dinner appointment at Olivieri's is with the seller." 

Leorio sighed. Kurapika had got his hands on Lorettiz's calendar and though he knew she was meeting a seller for her Kurta eyes at some point today (during which the mark would hopefully disclose the secret location in which she had been storing them), Kurapika had been unable to narrow down whether it would be during her morning trip to the city center or her dinner appointment tonight. Well, now they know. Leorio would just have to pencil a covert date with Kurapika at Olivieri's into his diary. 

*** 

As it turns out, Leorio was not about to have a glamorous date at a gourmet hunter-owned restaurant, accompanied by Kurapika in some sort of elegant drag that Leorio was already getting warm under the collar just thinking about: no. Leorio and Kurapika were about to wheedle their way onto the waiting staff of Olivieri's, and while Kurapika had elected to dress in a skirt, it was a smart and practical black knee-length thing rather than the skimming layer of silk that Leorio might have been envisioning. Still, with the apron wrapped around his tiny waist and his blond bangs pinned back, leaving his wide eyes fully exposed, Leorio still found it hard to tear his eyes away. 

Kurapika leaned close to the mirror in the hotel room they were sharing, applying brown eye liner. 

"If that model agency lady had seen you looking like that ..." Leorio made an impressed noise, staring unabashedly. "She wouldn't even have noticed me." Kurapika's brows twitched. 

"Still thinking about that, are you?" he scoffed. 

Leorio grinned. "Are you jealous?" 

"Why would I be jealous of her?" Kurapika snapped. 

Leorio's mouth flapped a bit. "Um. I mean, jealous that she wanted me to model and not you." He saw the moment when Kurapika realized his mistake and the eyeliner pencil went awry. He didn't meet Leorio's eyes, busying himself with retrieving a wipe to clean off the pencil instead. 

"Hardly," he said eventually. "I picked out your outfit, didn't I? That's probably what confused her talent radar into thinking you were a good modelling candidate." 

Leorio's grin dropped. "Is that so?" he said, not managing to sound as blasé as he wanted to. Sue him, he's sensitive, especially when it comes to Kurapika's opinion of him, and his dismissal hit hard. It wasn't as if Leorio was remotely considering becoming a model, but someone out there had said that he was good enough to qualify and it had felt good to hear. Kurapika can’t just let him have this boast, the little bastard. "I guess I'm always going to be a giant dork to you - to Killua and Gon too, probably. But there are actually people out there who find me attractive nowadays, y'know." 

Kurapika finished, and took a little too long replacing the cap carefully onto the eyeliner. "I was just joking. It was a bad joke. I know that there are people who - who find you attractive." 

This was a form of apology in Kurapika-ese. Leorio flapped a big hand, forgiving him immediately. "I wasn't fishing," he said, happy. Aware that he was falling into that bad habit of reading too much into the least positive feedback from Kurapika, but unable to help himself. "Now I've got to somehow carry on diagnosing strange rashes and asking for urine samples while knowing that I could be jetting around the world to earn thousands for a few hours in a photographer's studio or walking down a runway." 

Kurapika smiled, finally meeting his eyes in the mirror. "When you put it like that, ouch. Do they have an Haute-Couture Hunter category?" 

Leorio grinned back at him. "I guess I'd be the first." 

"The pursuit of true beauty," Kurapika teased. His lips were a subtle rose, matching his creamy skin tone like a dream. The motion of his slender arms was as precise and elegant as always as he put the makeup back into its bag. Leorio felt weak. He had to bite his lip hard to stop himself from saying the thing on the tip of his tongue _I've already found it_. Kurapika looked up, a little question on his face at his extended silence. When their eyes met, Leorio's breath was knocked out of him and all of their pretenses seemed suddenly stripped away. He could swear they've had one of these moments before, where he was sure Kurapika could read the unspoken words as if they're written on his face, and he thought he saw something respond in Kurapika too. As always, Kurapika broke the look and turned around. In the mirror, Leorio could see him swallow as he gathered the detritus of his costume preparations and went to tuck them back into his suitcase. 

After that, they kept their interactions to simple, practical exchanges until it was time to get to the restaurant. They were probably the only waitstaff to turn up to Olivieri's in a taxi. The place was huge, and most of the staff didn't notice the new faces: the head staff had been told that they're there on Hunter business and are not to be disturbed, at the instruction of Olivieri himself, the gourmet hunter who was happy to have a pair of fellow Hunters join the staff for a night on condition of a future favor. 

Kurapika served Lorettiz's table, while Leorio worked one nearby and tried not to mess up the pronunciations, though he kept forgetting which side to serve people on. The dishes were so complicated that each table required a dedicated waiter. Leorio checked often to see how Lorettiz's table was doing. She was sitting with a greasy-looking gentleman who looked like exactly the type who might facilitate the sale of illicit items like eyeballs harvested from a murdered clan. Kurapika was being perfectly professional, keeping his presence unobtrusive as he served them, perhaps hovering a little longer than he needed to, listening to their conversation whilst appearing to be busy. Leorio's backup capabilities were somewhat undermined by the young lady at his table who was getting extremely drunk on a diet of salad and cocktails. She took a liking to Leorio and decided that chatting him up and making her partner jealous was the best way to pass the time. The other diners at her table did their best to politely ignore the winking and the innuendos she came up with, and looked embarrassed when she insisted that Leorio had a little gravy on his shirt and she simply must dab it off for him. Leorio looked down at his chest and couldn't see a mark of any kind, but she had a damp napkin at the ready and Leorio had to deflect her attack as gently as he could while backing away. 

"For goodness' sake, Adine!" said the woman's partner, throwing down his fork. "Leave the damn waiter alone." 

At the same time, Kurapika appeared at Leorio's side, saying pointedly that he was wanted in the kitchen. Leorio breathed a sigh of relief and followed Kurapika as he cut through the restaurant floor. When they reached the kitchen, Kurapika found the head waiter and told him that his and Leorio's tables would have to be covered by someone else for the rest of the night, and he led Leorio to the back door, out of the restaurant and into the warm night air. 

Leorio rubbed his hand through his hair, exhausted and jet-lagged and tense with the secrecy of it all. This is how Kurapika lived, how he had chosen to live. They walked unhurriedly down streets stung with lights, past windows showing interiors of beautifully decorated restaurants and closed boutique stores where the displays remained lit up. Leorio's feet slowed when they passed a bespoke tailor's window, where two legless mannequins were posed in fine checkered blazers with silk pocket-squares, the pants hanging from them knotted up at the cuffs. In the basement half-hidden below street level, people were still busy in the workshop. 

"The Haute-Couture Hunter is distracted." Leorio looked up to see Kurapika waiting for him on the path ahead. He did not seem aggravated. He might even be smiling. The streetlights bleached his skin and darkened the red of his lips and the tiny gems hanging from his ears. Leorio walked up to meet him. He felt unable to hurry. He didn't think too much about it, just wrapped an arm around Kurapika's shoulders and guided him to face the right direction again, and he didn't remove his arm as they walked on. 

"Did you hear what you were hoping to?" he asked. 

"Yes," Kurapika said. "They're in a bank in Zavima. That was what that codeword was referring to - Panther, you know? When they're ready to make the exchange, I'll know where to be." 

"Right. And you've got access to Lorettiz's emails so it's going to be pretty transparent." 

"Yes." 

"Do you need me to be there? In Zavima?" 

"I don't know when it'll be yet. The next step will be finding a buyer willing to pay the right price; only then will the - the objects be retrieved from the vault." 

"You let me know," Leorio said. "Hey, does this mean we can actually be on holiday now? You know, our hotel has three outdoor pools. One of them's got a slide." He sniggered at the constipated expression that came over Kurapika's face. "Come on. Let's reach a compromise? At least two days where you engage in none-productive activity for, like, the majority of the time." 

Kurapika considered this with a suppressed smile. "Three days." 

Leorio laughed, delighted as he always was when Kurapika surprised him, his arm tightening around his shoulders. "Oh man, you drive a hard bargain. You win. We're having a three-day holiday. That's the longest holiday I've had since the Hunter exam - before then, even. Actually, I don't know if I've ever had a proper holiday. When I was a kid I was just trying to scam tourists on the beach and getting into fights." He felt Kurapika shrug. 

"I've never had a proper holiday either, not in the way you see in commercials." 

"Ah shit. We're going to suck at this. We're going to be two totally uptight dorks sitting stiff as boards on our sun loungers." 

Kurapika chuckled. "With any luck they'll all be distracted at having a focz model in their presence." 

Leorio blushed and hoped that the night hid it. "Shut up. I haven't made it onto their books yet," he said. 

Kurapika poked him in the stomach with one pointy finger. "You'd be a shoo-in, Leorio." He didn't look at Leorio as he said it. 

They were walking past a closed park now, the street lights interspersed at longer distances. Leorio didn't know where they were going, but he was pretty sure this is not the right direction for their hotel. They were just walking, neither of them particularly leading the other. The city was a gentle hum, the air pleasantly warm and reminding Leorio of summer nights back home. There was some sort of perfume in the air from the gardens behind the park fence. 

"You know, I wouldn't judge you if modelling is the path that calls to you," Kurapika said somberly. 

"Yeah, yeah. Funny." 

"This might be your true fate. I can see it would be very selfish to deny the world the gift of gazing at your form, as you lie all oiled-up on a chaise-longue in tiny underpants." 

"Kurapika." 

"I thought there was something about that talent-scout. You know, I don't think she worked for focz models. I think she was a nen master with an extra sense." 

"I swear-" 

"You will probably go on to cure more people with the perfection of your face than by becoming a simple doctor." 

This was enough, Leorio decided. Kurapika, spikey and acerbic and fitting perfectly in his arm, was asking for it. Leorio's last nerve snapped. He did them both a favor and swung Kurapika around, cutting off his words in a whoosh of surprised exhale. He leaned down and kissed him, met a mouth still half-open in preparation for another ribbing remark. It was warm and silky-smooth and Leorio felt like he was home. Time lost meaning. His hands spanned easily over Kurapika's back. It didn't matter that Kurapika would probably break his oath and leave him tomorrow for another inescapable obligation. Kurapika's fingers were digging into his hair. It didn't matter that Kurapika would never put his life before the death of his people. He supported the entirety of Kurapika's weight and he was not going to let him fall. 

They parted, gasping into each other's mouths. 

"Are you going to shut up about the modelling stuff now or do I have to do that some more?" Leorio panted. 

"I don't know," Kurapika said, his eyes a little glassy. 

"Ok," Leorio said, nonsensically, and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> My first HunterxHunter fic. Thanks for reading, any feedback very much wished for <3


End file.
